Sprout to Saviour
by Dorylus
Summary: Four intrepid plants are tasked with holding down Zomboss' operation long enough for the plants to grow an army and defend suburbia.
1. Cultivation

**Sprout to Saviour**

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Disclaimer: PvZ is_ far_ too cool to belong to me (although some of the puns do seem like things I might have come up with).

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**Cultivation**

Crazy Dave was certifiably insane and revelled in it. His kitchenware hat was a favourite accessory since before he even knew zombies existed.

Another practical advantage of raving lunacy was a...special talent for morticulture. Crazy Dave was the first customer of Bloom and Doom Seed Co, and with the size of his estate, the cost required to fully kit it with vegetable defenders was enough to kickstart the business and allow it to supply to all local homeowners.

In the zombie invasions that followed, some of the residents lost their brains and livelihoods to the ceaseless horde, but many others successfully repelled the threat. Increasingly, just the right plants for the people were available, trumping Zomboss' ability to outfit new units. Zomboss never could track down the corporate leaders and take them out of business - too many places to be, too many minions to oversee - and then the idea struck him.

He still had a surplus of brains, some abandoned buildings for space and his degree in thanatology. Immediately, Zomboss set to work ordering his shambling lackeys to build the Zomboss Academy, a special institution for training elite strike forces clever enough to bring artillery into the battlefield, easily outmanoeuvring static lawn guards.

Fortunately, Bloom and Doom Seed Co. professionally thought outside the box. Throughout suburbia, a grapevine network intercepted any information it encountered and took it into headquarters. As a result, Bloom and Doom Seed Co. was informed in advance of this movement, and began their own experiments. Through tireless labour, they eventually produced four seedlings and handed them to Crazy Dave on the house for a test drive.

Crazy Dave was not as clever as Zomboss, but the beauty of the project was that he only needed to raise the plants to be as good as they could be - their innate potential was already forged by their originators. At this job, he succeeded better than he could have hoped - perhaps, in part, because he insisted on taking them out for tacos and giving them a frankly ridiculous amount of fertiliser. In time, the line between gardener and father was blurred.

Walking into the greenhouse that was the host of his pet projects, he gazed upon his newest recruits with as much pride as his mismatched eyes could muster.

The peashooter ran to embrace Dave's leg with his pods in a facsimile hug. Dave patted him on the head.

The cactus inspected her stockpile of spikes, finding them to her liking. She gave Dave a wave in acknowledgement.

The chomper extended his tongue in a canine fashion and licked Dave, who rubbed the saliva off with a nervous chuckle.

The sunflower, meanwhile, was oblivious, still dancing to the rhythm of the Earth that only she could hear.

"To the future!" apparently, cacti could indeed arch their eyebrows. The sunflower finally stood at attention, while the chomper and peashooter looked positively enthused at the mission to come."I'll give you the briefing over a burger!"

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Yes, I used the grapevine device again, although this time, it's because the plot sort of required it. The next updates will have more words.

Dorylus signing off.


	2. Assignment

**Sprout to Saviour**

* * *

**Assignment**

The event proceeded as planned, the five diners taking down their burgers as the odd device in front of them gained in power. With a flash, the group was hurled topsy-turvy into the temporal aether, the chomper mourning the loss of his sixteenth morsel as it plummeted into a random moment in time. Someone looked to be getting a free meal. Eventually, they arrived at their destination with a brilliant lustre and took a look around.

The place was a plant-controlled bastion brimming with sufficiently advanced technology, as indicated by the omnipresent fluorescent lights and incomprehensible gadgetry. An alarm rang through the building, but a plasma pea identified the new arrivals and overturned it. Brimming with glee, he summoned a future cactus, armour chomper and mystic flower to join him as he rushed toward his counterpart. The others did the same. After a brief conversation of frenzied gestures, the advanced variants led Dave and his new squad to a side chamber containing a gallery of simulation zombies, before standing on the sidelines to observe. Their arrival caused a few withered potted plants to spring up alongside them. The implications were clear.

Right off the bat, the peashooter shot out a coffee bean*, which crumbled into powder as it left the muzzle. The powder wreathed itself around the peashooter, it's energy transferring to him. With a caffeine-fuelled twitch, things seemed to go into bullet time as the peashooter tore down the corridor toward the end, leaping over the zombies in giant bounds. Following it up, the peashooter lobbed a chilli bean bomb into the midst of a cluster of foot soldiers before jumping onto a raised podium to hunker down and bombard a large group browncoats with gatling fire, spreading putrescent pea soup over the floor.

The chomper vomited goop at an all-star, corroding it. Of course, the slowing effect was quite redundant. Tearing into the ground with successive bites, the chomper tunnelled underneath the all-star and took it down in one bite (he found he preferred the feet, but unfortunately there was no salt on hand to bring out the flavour) before chewing through it. After swallowing, the chomper approached a berserker and set a spikeweed behind it. The chomper nudged the zombie onto the spikeweed, and immediately a thorned vine grappled the berserker's feet and hoisted it up into the air, where it was ripe for picking off.

The cactus shot four seeds into the ground, which rose into a tallnut battlement. Laying potato mines around the tallnuts, the cactus then perched atop them, deploying her garlic drone. Controlling the drone with her mind, the cactus navigated it into a browncoat group spearheaded by an engineer. Dropping the lesser zombies with the garlic's needles, the cactus took a page out of the chomper's book and used the drone to nudge the engineer onto a potato mine, which SPUDOWed it as soon as the pressure was applied. Satisfied, the cactus waited until a corn strike was charged and unleashed it.

The sunflower skipped to a cluster of withered plants and dropped a heal flower pot in their midst. The sundrops it emitted soaked into them, rejuvenating them*. The renewed bamboo shoot, fume-shroom and scaredy shroom got to work. Meanwhile, the sunflower took a position opposite to the peashooter, using the heal beam along the way to restore a fire pea and ice pea, before rooting down and absorbing the power of the sun (it was a testament to her care under Crazy Dave that she could somehow do this indoors), focusing it into a beam that burned through the scientists that were left standing from the onslaught of the others.

In response to the gauntlet being cleared, a hatch in the floor opened up, and out popped a large blue crystal. Popping out of the ground, the sunflower and peashooter caught it in a crossfire of peas and spheres of light as the chomper ran up to it and attempted to chew through the hard surface, meeting with success. The cactus deactivated the drone and took the time to look for faults in the crystal, lined up her shots, and fired, needles penetrating deep into the crystal and increasing the size of the fractures on the inside, making the attacks of the other plants more effective. In a matter of about a minute, they had reduced the whole thing to rubble.

"Get ready! The last test is CRAAAZY!" Dave exclaimed as he pressed a suspicious-looking red button. A warning siren played for atmosphere as the hatch from which the crystal emerged closed as the potted plants also folded in - opposite it, on the ceiling, the tiles parted, revealing a restrictive cell from which a real gargantuar, as opposed to a training imitation, plummeted. The chomper ran away before the collision to avoid being flattened as the other plants sized it up, the sunflower quivering. The others sympathised, the peashooter putting on a brave face as he fired the first shot, striking it's back with a green splatter. Barely registering the attack, the gargantuar raised it's telephone pole and delivered a mighty blow to the chomper, electrocuting it and sending it flying. The chomper noted with alarm that some of it's vessels had burst open and began bleeding sap. After a crash landing, the chomper righted itself and snarled at the titan, vomiting on it before once again going subterranean.

The peashooter approached, drawing the attention of the gargantuar as it fired. The angle was difficult, but the cactus managed to score a hit to the eye with a spike, causing the gargantuar to flinch. Seizing the opening, the chomper lunged out of the earth and bit the knuckles and fingers of the hand clutching the pole, viciously tearing into them. The gargantuar flicked the hand, dislodging the chomper. The sunflower rang alongside the chomper and began to heal him as the chomper moved to bite it's back.

His hyper ready once again, the peashooter jumped onto the gargantuar's head. Attempting to shift the reckless plant, the gargantuar found that it's attacks missed, the peashooter leaping over them with impunity as it continued to pelt the gargantuar's cranium with peas. As the effects of the coffee bean faded away, the peashooter tumbled backwards, rotating to land on it's feet and dodging one more swing from the gargantuar before making haste in the other direction.

Hunching over, the gargantuar pointed it's trash cannon at the retreating plant. The cactus called out with a wave, drawing the chomper's attention. She pointed (no pun intended) to the trash can, from which an explosive-carrying imp jumped, landing aside the peashooter and detonating, damaging him. The chomper jumped on the sunflower, the sunflower managing to bear it's weight for a moment as the chomper used his footstool to jump yet higher and land on the trash can. Leaning forward, he held his mouth open in front of the trash can. He heard a whimper as the imps inside were gripped by a cold shiver and refused to jump. The gargantuar got the message, but before he grabbed the chomper and hurled it away, the chomper vomited goop down the trash can, coating the imps, which perished to the corrosion, denying the gargantuar it's projectiles.

Enraged, the gargantuar turned to look at the chomper and ran as fast as it could, landing another electricity-augmented smash attack on it. While the telephone pole maintained contact, the chomper fought against the pain and latched it's jaws around the tip, snapping it. The club was turned into a spear and lost it's conductive properties. The chomper burrowed again to evade a follow-up attack, retreating to take a breather. The sunflower skipped over to the peashooter to cure the harm dealt by the explosion.

The gargantuar changed target to the cactus, dashing forward and breaking the tallnut barricade in one go. The cactus lost her footing and tumbled back-first onto the pole. Thinking quickly, the peashooter fired a pea that clipped the gargantuar's ankle, the platter, triggering a potato mine close enough to scathe the foot of the gargantuar. The cactus rolled off the spear, regained her footing and headed away to get more distance. The chomper surfaced, the sunflower moving to heal him.

Impressed with their performance, the four future plants intervened to deliver the coup-de-grace. The mystic flower, plasma pea and future cactus nailed the gargantuar's head with synchronised fully-charged shots as the armour chomper went under, surfacing next to the gargantuar and digging his teeth into it's thigh. Weakened by the trauma of the battle and the bombardment it had just received, the gargantuar was not able to resist as the armour chomper pulled it down with vicelike jaws. It struggled to get back onto it's feet, but failed, and passed away for the second and final time.

Their trial over, Dave and the plants waved goodbye to the future squad and sought out the device to travel back to the present.

"Wow! You guys did great!" reaching into his pocket, Dave withdrew four labels, which turned out to have codenames inscribed on them. He slapped them on the plants in sequence:

"Lathyrus!" The peashooter jumped up and down in a manner reminiscent of a child, uttering celebratory exclamations in whatever languages peashooters communicated in.

"Helianthus!" The sunflower pirouetted on her leaves, exiting the spinning motion dizzy and nauseous. She took a few moments to close her eyes and steady herself.

"Dionaea!" The chomper roared upward with great volume, proclaiming his absolute authority as the resident tyrannosaurus rex of the plant team. No-one argued for the position.

"Carnegiea!" The cactus nodded in acknowledgement, offering no further action.

Having pricked one of his fingers on a spike applying the label to Carnegiea, Dave nabbed a convenient bandage and covered the wound with it. He led the team into his hovering van, and they blasted off.

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* The coffee bean needs more love, so in this story and all other stories I write set in the style of garden warfare, Hyper will be triggered by a coffee bean. It's duration will also be shortened, but the speed boost is faster and a time dilation effect also applies, improving reflexes. Also, potted plants don't disappear after dying in this, but instead linger around for a certain period in a withered status, and may be restored through healing equivalent to their base health, which, as the audience probably knows, is not great.

Dorylus signing off.


	3. Landfall

**Sprout to Saviour**

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**Landfall**

Feeling claustrophobic inside the van, Lathyrus opened a window, the process being made awkward by the fact that he had to use pods without opposable thumbs. Relaxing under the breeze that rolled in, Lathyrus took a sideways glance at Helianthus and noted she was still struggling with the task, and popped it open for her. She gave a gesture in thanks and looked outside. While Lathyrus surveyed the landscape below, Helianthus gazed at the sun. Each remained well aware of the presence of the other, their chlorophyll pigmentation accompanied by a subtle red hue which did not escape Carnegiea's attention. Deeming it none of her business, she practised her squint for focusing on long-range targets.

Dionaea was significantly less comfortable than the others. Vans were hardly effective aviators in the first instance, and despite what the fact that Dave had owned it for years would suggest to the contrary, it was not properly maintained. The end result was a lot of lurching and tumbling. Overcome by nausea, Dionaea threw up on the floor, corroding a hole in it. The pressure gradient sucked the hapless chomper in through the floor until the base of his head plugged the hole, leaving his stem and leaves dangling out in the open.

A ding emitted from one of the panels, indicating that they were rapidly nearing the drop zone. Dionaea did the closest thing he could do to a sigh of relief, but the sound came out as a quiet guttural growl. Carnegiea approached Helianthus and Lathyrus and tapped them, pointing to the panel.

"How do you land this thing?" Dave asked. No answer was given. The van slowed, steadied, and began it's descent, meeting the meadow below with a thud and also popping Dionaea out of the hole. The door suddenly swung open, almost coming off of it's hinges. Carnegiea had no idea how this thing was operational, but she had no complaints. Despite everything, the flight did not unsettle her, likely because her sympathetic connection with her garlic drone allowed Carnegiea to feel like she was airborne anyway.

Helianthus was the last one out. Before she departed, Dave tapped one of her petals. Turning around, Helianthus came face-to-face with a canister.

"Give this to Dionaea to keep in his stomach. When he spits it out, it'll smoke like that time I tried to cook the orb salad. I can fly in to help you, but it'll take time." he then addressed all of the plants.

"See you guys later!" he garbled, before closing the windows, duct-taping over the hole and taking off, leaving the team to their goal. Helianthus tossed the canister to Dionaea, who swallowed it, becoming surprised when it wasn't digested. Perhaps Dave had coated it in leftover cheese from his fridge? That stuff was almost impossible to break down. Dionaea retched at the reminder of the taste, but kept everything down.

Lathyrus immediately headed out, and the other plants followed. They crossed the meadow, and standing at it's periphery, there stood a warehouse. Pressing his head to the wall, Lathyrus could make out the groans, grunts and cries for brains that signalled zombie communication. This thing was very much still in use - they couldn't go guns blazing, as much as Lathyrus wanted to, until they knew they wouldn't be dragged under a rotting dogpile. Carnegiea grimaced at the lack of dignity that that fate entailed. Hunching over, she deployed her drone, the other plants establishing physical contact. To their surprise, the plan worked, and they could see everything Carnegiea could see through the eyes of the drone as it flew up to the roof and searched for an opening large enough to go down through.

Helianthus cheered when one such opening was discovered (this warehouse must have been old and comparatively trivial to be neglected in this way), and the drone passed through it, but abruptly halted. The place had a large quantity of browncoat labourers, and although no zombies were positioned to monitor, numerous zombot turrets offered virtually total coverage of the airspace. If the drone flew a little further, it would be spotted and gunned down in short order. The stockpiles of resources and brains, however, blocked line-of-sight along the ground, giving dark zones that provided effective hiding places.

Lathyrus intuited what to do next. Consuming the powder of a coffee bean once again, Lathyrus took advantage of his elevated jumping to scale the architecture in three leaps, taking to the roof. Heading to one of the warehouse's top corners, Lathyrus fired a chili bean bomb that exploded just after it rolled off the roof, opening another, less conspicuous entrance in the side, through which he could drop in outside the targeting radius of the turrets.

Carnegiea used the drone to continue to listen to the workers, and found that their chatter hadn't changed. Lathyrus wasn't detected. Plans like this were made a little too easy when the opponent was barely intelligent enough to walk properly - Carnegiea certainly would have noticed an explosion going off within ten metres of her. Lathyrus sought concealment on the nearest shelf, managing to create enough space for himself after nudging the other contents a little. He was grateful for his short stature (Lathyrus liked to think that the best things came in small packages).

The closest worker grabbed a jar of brains from right in front of Lathyrus, exposing him. His trigger finger itching, Lathyrus promptly replaced the zombie's head with a splattered pea, felling it. Content that no-one else was nearby, he proceeded to unload the rest of his clip into the wall, but found that the peas didn't make an impact. Reloading, he redoubled his efforts, breaking through a rusted patch. Carnegiea commanded the drone to call in a corn strike.

The barrage worked as intended, shearing the wall and opening a slot. Carnegiea and Helianthus still couldn't gain access, but for Dionaea, it was a different story. Gnawing through the ground, Dionaea tunnelled inside after Lathyrus, the dirt he kicked up filling the slot. The girls trusted the boys to carry out the next phase and busied themselves with making sure they wouldn't be compromised by zombies from the outside. Thus far, the coast was clear.

Something did, however, draw the attention of Lathyrus and Dionaea. Several barrels in storage featured labels with black drops. His curiosity compelling him, Lathyrus pushed a barrel off the shelf and rolled it over to the corner through which Dionaea had entered. Dionaea bit the barrel, and through the hole squirted a thick black fluid - oil. Neither of them was overly familiar with the physics of the substance, but Helianthus had an idea. Jumping, she faced Lathyrus through the hole that had been opened by his peas and frantically gestured for the boys to step back. Dionaea grabbed the barrel of oil in his jaws, careful not to open it further and spill more of it's contents, and haphardly put it away. Dionaea and Lathyrus kept their eyes peeled on the oil as Helianthus jumped, this time firing a single sphere of compressed sunlight into the oil. The heat was enough to achieve a short-lived ignition. This was it. This was perfect.

Lathyrus and Dionaea picked off the labourers and turrets one by one until the coast was mostly clear. The browncoats cottoned on, but there were few enough left that defeating them was a trivial feat. The boys now had free run of the place, and used it to coat the floor in oil. At the same time, Dionaea dropped the barrels at random parts of the trail. Lathyrus headed out of the warehouse and approached the girls, who joined him inside the building to inspect their work. Carnegiea strolled through the complex, dropping potato mines in the oil. With that, the plants assembled outside and Helianthus applied the finishing touch, lighting the joint up. The fire and explosions that followed ravaged the warehouse. Lathyrus revelled in the destruction, and Dionaea looked similarly pleased. The scent of zombie industry was unpleasant. The scent of ash, on the other hand...was like victory.

Carnegiea broke the celebration, leading them onward. There was still a ways to go, and the defences would get much more severe than this.

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I don't particularly like this chapter, but I have wrote it multiple times, and this is the best effort yet, so it sticks.

Dorylus signing off.


	4. Footsteps

**Sprout to Saviour**

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**Footsteps**

Their exit was promptly halted by the appearance of a column of browncoats, a convoy carrying a new set of supplies. The browncoats spotted the mess of smoke and charred metal that indicated the former position of the warehouse, staring dumbly at the wreckage. Lathyrus could only smile at the cannon fodder. This wasn't like before - they had open sight and could rain fire for some time before the browncoats actually got into range. This advantage was strengthened by the fact that it didn't occur to the zombies to drop their load in order to go faster. Carnegiea adopted the closest thing to a suspicious frown that her prickly countenance could host. This seemed to be too easy. Zomboss could afford to sustain horrendous casualties to get what he wanted.

Never-the-less, they continued their advance. The terrain made an ambush infeasible for the time being, so advancing was a safe bet. This continued until the party encountered a small abandoned town. They stopped near the entrance, Dionaea offering to scout in advance. The others understood the reasoning implied. If all went south, he could tunnel out, and the tighter spaces would serve him well. Dionaea was also itching for a zombie more appealing to his palette than a basic grunt.

Ten minutes past, and the chomper turned up nothing. Suddenly, at the very edge of his hearing, he detected a sequence of beeps. Instinctively, Dionaea sought the underground, and that became his saving race as a rocket struck the point he was standing on three seconds before. Dionaea burrowed in the opposite direction and surfaced such that an RV stood between him and wherever the source of the rocket was. Unfortunately, popping out of either side of the RV would have opened him up to fire, and, unaware of the distance of his potential assassin, he opted to keep his head down and make a break for it in a few minutes when he could burrow again.

Growing impatient, Lathyrus followed Dionaea down the streets, frantically searching. His demeanour brightened as he found Dionaea standing behind an RV, and, looking around, saw the zombie pinning him. This thing was not a rank-and-file drone. It sported a vaguely militaristic uniform complete with a hard-wearing green hat. A weird tube was strapped on it's back, and, conspicuously, one of it's boots was absent from a foot, instead hanging off of it's...

...gun.

Was this one of Zomboss' supersoldiers? The way it carried itself was dignified, methodical...intelligent. Standing in front of the RV, it continued to train it's gun, ready to fire as soon as Dionaea emerged. Lathyrus thought to himself that the zombie seemed to fail to account for one thing. Dionaea peeked out, spotting the zombie. It was in strike range, he thought. The zombie spotted him and began to bombard him with pellets, the pinpoint assault dealing considerable damage before the soil became the chomper's shield and sword. Dionaea surged forward, the earth being churned as he went, but just before he could make the killing bite, his quarry pressed a button, triggering the weird tube to shoot a jet of flame downward and reveal itself as a rocket pack. The soldier leaped upward from the force and planted it's feet firmly on a nearby rooftop, out of reach, and reloaded.

Startled, Dionaea was forced to emerge, and retreated to get back behind the RV, taking fire. Lathyrus decided that now would be a good time to intervene, and communicated the message by attempting to clean the soldier's clock with a pea. Unfortunately, the zombie spotted the pea and decided his clock didn't particularly need. Thus, he rolled backward, the projectile sailing harmlessly over his head. Lathyrus realised to his distaste that the battle was easily out of his favour. Once again, he activated hyper, darting forward and taking a mighty leap that landed him next to the soldier.

Lathyrus fired a bean bomb, but unfortunately his placement was just a little off and the attack rolled off the house. The fighters began to trade fire.

On hearing the struggle, Dionaea turned back around to witness it, and grinned triumphantly as he saw Lathyrus run circles around his opponent. However, the smile faded as the boost burned off. Back at normal speed, Lathyrus was no longer able to effectively dodge the pellets, which quickly chipped his good condition away, inflicting numerous lesions on his head and stem. Meanwhile, Lathyrus struggled to score critical hits and was forced to rely on the mediocre blast damage. Overcome with concern for his comrade, Dionaea attempted to intervene, but his goop was hardly ideal at this distance and angle - it merely caught on a shingle and left a stain.

With no change in expression, the soldier grabbed a canister and hurled it at his feet. Immediately, a sinister purple gas leaked out, the putrescent scent of which was so nauseating that it oppressed the will and burned the nostrils (even though such organs didn't actually exist on peashooters). Lathyrus felt as though his soul itself was being assaulted. Blinded and thoroughly repulsed, he lurched uncomfortably, grasped by a fit of choking and coughing. Pinpointing his location by the sound, the zombie knelt over, and with a few beeps...

Dionaea growled in rage as the ordnance hit home, felling Lathyrus in one shot. That done, the soldier rocketed off into the distance and weaved around the houses. Losing the zombie's trail, Dionaea emitted a mournful howl before heading back to Carnegiea and Helianthus with a heavy heart. As they spotted him, he signalled them to follow him and led them to the site of the battle. Helianthus found to her horror that there was no way to reach him to revive him. She looked at Dionaea hopefully, but Dionaea shook his head. They only had one flare, and they couldn't afford to summon help now, in case things got even worse later. Dave didn't have the fuel to keep watch over them for the rest of the mission, and when he did go back to refuel, it was likely that he wouldn't find them again.

The only solution was to press on. Justice could be dealt at a later time. If they succeeded, they would use the help to get Lathyrus back up (and wouldn't he be annoyed if he got revived only to find out that he missed most of the action?). They moved on, morale, strength and heads all lowered. There could be no separation from now on.

The group hightailed it through the town, more vigilant than ever, without encountering Lathyrus' nemesis. At the end, they found a valley. A bridge to the right ran the entire length of the chasm, but it had far too many zombies to assault - including the soldier, who must have just taken his position after running away, and a large quantity of rock-carrying browncoats, coneheads and bucketheads. They hadn't been spotted yet (although it was almost certain the zombies knew they were coming). Carnegiea could snipe, but they'd be spotted, pinned down and ultimately picked off. This was not a favourable situation. The only option was to descend down the ravine under the watch of the bridge and exploit any concealment offered by the trees on the way down.

* * *

Things are looking down, but don't worry too much for the plants - this story is rated K+, after all. The next update will hopefully come quicker.

Dorylus signing off.


	5. Diminish

**Sprout to Saviour**

* * *

**Diminish**

The endeavour was as treacherous as expected. The group was required to scramble over open ground and bare rock at multiple points, potentially exposing them to fire. Fortunately, for the moment, the group averted such a scenario. Taking care to avoid scattering, the group discovered the hard way that they were not as subtle as they believed. Within the span of seconds, a bush near Dionaea shook violently as a zombie erupted out of it. Sturdily-constructed, this monster was clearly not a rank-and-file minion as it surged forward, colliding with Dionaea and hurling him down the rest of the ravine - painfully, hitting several branches and stones on the way down. The zombie wasn't done with him yet, though, jumping (and sliding) down the ravine to give chase.

Helianthus and Carnegiea sped up to assist Dionaea, though they did not yet fire or move at full-tilt. The zombie hadn't raised the alarm, and they weren't eager to do the job themselves. Unfortunately, they too were intercepted. A repetitive mechanical sound was emitted from behind Carnegiea, growing steadily louder, and she turned around to find that the source was coming closer. Struck by a jackhammer-riding zombie in construction-esque garb, she followed Dionaea and his attacker on a rough-and-tumble ride down.

Deducing by now that the zombies were perfectly aware of their position, and unwilling for the moment to contemplate what intelligence could be driving them to enable an ambush like this, Helianthus fired at the jackhammer zombie. However, it was bounding along rapidly and even with her elevated speed, she could not remain in firing range for long.

Dionaea, dazed from the impact, realised with alarm that he had landed in a stream. The trickles of sap that leaked from his injuries joined with the water as he slowly raised himself out the water. No sooner had he righted himself than the zombie that tackled him made an appearance at the bottom of the valley to press the assault. Seeking to return the favour, Dionaea tunnelled into the mud and surged forward, breaking out of the ground underneath the athletic zombie's feet. Reacting quickly, the quarry surged forward into a tackle as Dionaea's teeth began to sink into it, prising his jaws off. Unable to control it's momentum, the zombie crashed into a tree, though the tree seemed to take more damage than it did as the bark was splintered on impact.

Though some of his teeth were dislodged, Dionaea pressed the assault, spitting goop to hold down his target. The zombie leaned backward and held a foot out. A moment later, a tackle dummy emerged in a puff of smoke, accompanied by a disembodied whistling sound. The goop splattered harmlessly on the front of the dummy as the zombie that summoned it began to climb the tree it had so gracefully collided with. Having almost reached his target, Dionaea lunged to bite it's foot, but the zombie had climbed too high for Dionaea to achieve anything other than inflicting cursory damage to one of it's boots. The zombie looked displeased at this turn of events, though it's muteness prevented an audible protest.

Having secured it's footing on the tree, the zombie readied it's football cannon and began to let loose, the stream of rapid-fire footballs dealing all the more damage because they struck at point blank. Recoiling from the pain, Dionaea was unable to react as the zombie kicked an imp at him. The imp perhaps looked a bit too happy considering the lit explosives strapped to it as it collided with it's target. Though Dionaea was heavy, the kick propelling the imp was mighty and he was driven back, unable to respond as the imp expended itself in a small but violent detonation. Catapulted back into the river by the blast, Dionaea was unable to retain his grip on consciousness as he joined, unmoving, with the placid current. The canister dislodged from his stomach.

Carnegiea was scarcely in a superior position. She had managed to land the right way up, though, pivoting to follow the noise emitting from her attacker. As Dionaea was fighting, Carnegiea likewise traded needles and concrete with her opponent, to increasing success after the jackhammer ceased to function and forced it's owner to dismount. However, Carnegiea was blindsided when the zombie drew a bizarre loudspeaker-looking object and hurled it. The makeshift device emitted an overbearingly loud noise on impact, dazing her and giving her the impression that the record had been set for the loudest exclamation of "BRAINS!" ever.

After getting in a few free attacks, the undead contender now comfortably led the engagement. Carnegiea took a quick glance at Dionaea to find him defeated and his opponent walking away. Momentarily downtrodden, Carnegiea never-the-less noted the canister and a plan formed in her mind. The inattention of the athlete zombie might make this possible. Turning back to face the construction zombie, the cactus dropped a seed which seemed to erupt on contact with the earth, growing into a tallnut barricade. Sparing not a single moment, she turned and made a dash toward the canister, noting with relief that her pursuer was too distracted shooting the barricade to have the idea to scale over it.

Grabbing the canister, Carnegiea loaded it into her barrel and looked a short distance up the ravine to see Helianthus nearing the bottom. She mused that Helianthus didn't have the...prompting that she and Dionaea had to reach the bottom. Steadying her aim, Carnegiea fired the canister toward the left of Helianthus. Though it cracked on impact, the canister did not trigger yet. Helianthus halted her advance, understanding what she needed to do. Her retreat was hastened as a figure materialised near her, cackling madly to itself. If she took a moment to examine the pursuer, Helianthus would have found it to be wearing a surprisingly well-kept labcoat (surprising, that is, for something owned by a zombie) and a pack containing swirling chemicals - chemicals which found their way into it's bizarre three-pronged gun to be fired at the retreating sunflower. Though this bizarre weapon was strong, Helianthus had already left the weapon's effective range as she continued her retreat and, having exhausted it's teleportation to close the distance, the zombie was forced to let the sunflower leave with the canister in hand.

The counterattack was on the horizon.

* * *

Apologies for the blatant lie at the end of the last chapter. Honestly, I stopped writing for a time and forgot that I still had an active story.

Dorylus signing off.


	6. Turnabout

**Sprout to Saviour**

* * *

**Turnabout**

Getting back up the ravine was considerably more difficult, but Helianthus eventually found herself at the abandoned town. Briefly replaying the events in her mind, Helianthus retraced the path to the house on which Lathyrus was defeated and threw the canister to the ground in front of the door, shooting the canister for good measure. That did the trick, causing an eruption of thick green smoke to emerge skyward. This smoke was much more pleasant than the zombie's cloud, at least.

Dave was clever enough to know what the early use of the signal entailed and did not spare a single moment climbing into his van, though he did spare several moments trying to start it up by necessity. With an undignified lurch, it became airborne and carried it's raving mad pilot across the skies. Helianthus watched with glee as the van appeared over the horizon.

Throwing a lever, Dave dropped a watering can on the rooftop which landed with an unceremonious bang and remained still for a few moments. Her faith unaffected, Helianthus continued to watch the watering can until the nozzle opened up and a mechanical hand emerged, pushing the can into a standing position. It's job done, the hand retracted and the watering can began to rotate as it sprayed rainbow...something over a short radius. Fortunately, Crazy Dave was surprisingly accurate and had placed the bizarre deployable within effective radius of Lathyrus, whose body felt infinitely lighter as his injuries began to close and become numb. Within very little time, Lathyrus recovered the strength to stand and eagerly hopped down to greet Helianthus, who was not so enthusiastic. Helianthus quickly patched up Lathyrus' remaining injuries.

Dave took Lathyrus and Helianthus on board as the latter gestured toward the ravine, prompting Dave to fly to it. With only one opportunity available, Lathyrus begged Dave in his own way to be the one to pull the trigger on the zombies. Dave obliged and Lathyrus nearly smashed the cherry strike button, raining fruity ordnance over the bridge, which began to collapse. Panicked, the zombies fled as quickly as possible, conveniently freeing the area for Helianthus to find Dionaea and Carnegiea. Dave landed once more to send his passengers on their way, but not before handing them two vials of sun and two packets of seeds apiece.

Carnegiea was discovered first. Her opponent had not let up after breaking down the barricade, closing the distance on his jackhammer. Closer examination revealed that she was still covered in particles of concrete in addition to the more obvious signs of heavy impact. Helianthus got to work, her roots intertwining with those of Carnegiea, sun passing between them until eventually the cactus was able to right herself as Lathyrus had done. Her reaction was subtle, but Helianthus understood she was grateful regardless. The two of them followed Lathyrus, who had taken off like a bullet as soon as he verified that Carnegiea was okay.

Initially, none of them could spot Dionaea, though Carnegiea noted a faint trail of sap leading along the current of the stream. Following the trail, the trio found themselves before a miniature cascade obstructing a cave mouth. Nodding to eachother, the plants charged through the curtain of water to find their comrade lying against a cluster of stalagmites at the edge of a pool. Embedded shrapnel and blunt trauma. Helianthus tended to his injuries at once, the power of the sun granting renewed life to the chomper.

Dionaea slowly picked himself out of the uncomfortably chilly water, shivering uncontrollably but grateful for being revived regardless. The party was assembled once more, filling them with determination.

The obvious choice was to continue past the ravine in the direction of the zombies, and so once again they tirelessly ventured on. Expecting another outpost shortly past the bridge, the plants were disappointed to find an ordinary path, though Carnegiea grew suspicious at the appearance of another town on the horizon, which proved equally abandoned on arrival. No ambush this time - it appeared that the soldier zombie had made a tactical withdrawal instead of a feint, taking the teamless sports enthusiast, bizarrely-haired laughing maniac and construction-themed noisemaker with them.

Carnegiea also grew suspicious at the manner in which the buildings were kept - immaculately. Someone was inhabiting them, and with the original denizens having fled (because the alternative was not inspiring to consider), the number of potential candidates was low. Noticing her raised brow, Lathyrus ventured into the nearest house - via the window. Helianthus giggled, but Carnegiea was not so amused - even less so when Dionaea tunnelled into the lounge of the house. In their haste, the boys appeared to have forgotten that there could well be humans waiting to move back into town when it is safe who would not appreciate property damage.

The girls followed them, leading to Helianthus' turn to be displeased as her height made it extremely difficult to turn the door handle. Eventually, she managed, but her moment of quiet accomplishment fell away in an instant as she and Carnegiea noticed that Lathyrus and Dionaea were staring at an object on the dining room table. Following their gaze, Helianthus gasped in dawning horror, but steadied herself on realising that the brain was synthetic, probably some kind of training equipment for newly-recruited zombies.

Licking his lips, Dionaea swallowed the brain. It seemed he had come to the same conclusion, his mouth filling with the flavour of raspberry. The peculiarity did not at all affect his enjoyment of the morsel. Lathyrus looked at him inquiringly, to which Dionaea nodded in approval. Lathyrus became eager to try out one of these false brains if they came across another.

When the impromptu snack break ended, the team began to search the house in pursuit of more evidence of zombie habitation, ultimately coming across an open hatch in the basement with a ladder leading down to a large and definitely occupied chamber. Eager to rush into it, Lathyrus was stopped by Carnegiea, who deployed a garlic drone in his stead. Painstakingly trying to fly over the radar of the swarms of zombies, Carnegiea's efforts were rewarded as she saw the likeness of Dr Zomboss on a sign next to one of the paths, identifying the way forward. Moving the drone back, she deliberately detonated it over a group of zombies to draw their attention. Making sure, Lathyrus leaned down the hatch and fired a chilli bean bomb through the debris of the drone, causing a lumbering horde to chase it down. If a distraction was required, that was certainly it.

There was no time to waste. Carnegiea pointed out the direction of Zomboss' headquarters to Lathyrus, who led the way. Sprinting at full speed, the plants braced themselves for the final phase of their daring mission.

* * *

Surprise update! Only two or three more chapters to go now, so for anyone still hanging on, thank you very much and I will try my best not to disappoint.

Dorylus signing off.


	7. Showdown

**Sprout to Saviour**

* * *

**Showdown**

Exhaustion threatened to set in as the team advanced, but haste was suddenly made redundant as the zombie headquarters came into view. Taking a moment to catch their metaphorical breath, the plants began to formulate their plan of action, after insistence from Carnegiea that Lathyrus not charge in like he was the lead of some sort of action movie. Dionaea also experienced some disappointment - his barely silent stomach would just have to wait. Helianthus tried to steady herself, not as psychologically prepared for a battle as vicious as this one promised to be. Her talents lay elsewhere, as Lathyrus could attest. He approached her, laying leaf on petal as the closest thing to a gesture of comfort as he could manage. Her smile was reward enough for him.

A drone newly ready, Carnegiea perused the immediate environment for a bush to crouch into as she sent it on it's way. Unfortunately, it seemed that Zomboss had taken some lessons in basic security alongside his thanatology studies - the patrols didn't present an obvious gap, nor were there any unobserved open windows that the drone could silently slip into. However, the top of the tower bore a circle of spotlight-holding platforms which didn't appear to be able to keep watch over the entire perimeter by themselves. Hmmm...Carnegiea smiled to herself, a rare sight, as she commanded the drone back into the bush she summoned it, disposing of it discretely.

The plants waited until dark, Lathyrus and Dionaea virtually twitching the entire time. Surely enough, the spotlights activated and began to turn. Carnegiea glanced at Helianthus knowingly and Helianthus understood the stratagem at once. Carnegiea deployed yet another drone, only this time it was scheduled to take aboard a passenger. Helianthus rooted to the top of the drone, which was clearly struggling with the weight but soldiered on regardless.

Higher and higher the sunflower was lifted into the still night air until the moment of opportunity arrived. Helianthus gathered all of the sunlight she had accumulated into a grossly incandescent beam, directed at the eyes of one of the operators. Blinded and suffering from a severe case of burnt face, the zombie tumbled off of it's spotlight. Presumably, the other guards assumed that the device was malfunctioning. In the intervening period, the drone flew over onto the platform and popped, dropping Helianthus on the ledge. Her usual good cheer gone, Helianthus fired upon the sentry, cooking it to a crisp. Taking a look around her, Helianthus deduced how to operate the spotlight and keep pattern with the remaining zombie sentinels to curb their suspicions. They seemed to take the bait, allowing Carnegiea to smuggle the remainder of the team to the top. Dionaea only barely made it.

United at the pinnacle, the plants proceeded to control all of the splotlights and, breaking them from their settings, aimed them inside the top floor. Alarmed, zombies rushed in droves to fix the problem, but the spotlights in their face prevented them from accomplishing much of anything. Lathyrus looked on joyously as he fired a chilli bean bomb amidst the crowd. The zombies, hearing and smelling the bomb, practically dogpiled it, ensuring their sudden and widespread demise. Turrets emerged from sockets all over the chamber in response to the chilli bean's arrival, but naturally they were unable to obtain a visual either.

Pandemonium ensued as zombies continued to ascend the tower while the plants simply stepped and slid back down the sides to ground level. Dionaea tunnelled into the mud immediately beside the headquarter's foundation, entering the generator room without tripping the alarms. With liberal use of goop, the tunnel remained open for his allies to use as well.

Carnegiea and Helianthus systematically disabled the defences in the room with pinpoint strikes until the group was completely unimpeded in opening fire on the power cores - and so they did, bearing down with such fervour that even the sturdy construction of the cores were quickly whittled down to scrap metal.

Unfortunately, not all of their adversaries were metaphorically brainless. A hatch in the roof was pried open and four zombies dropped down to greet the invaders.

The first wielded a long-barrelled paintball gun from which one of it's boots was suspended. It's adornment bore a passing resemblance to that of an enlisted person's.

The second was great in stature, with a cagelike helm and generic red sportswear and a rapid-fire cannon that should have been too heavy for it's threadlike arms to hold.

The third was chubby and clad in construction wear, or an approximation of it. The zombie's weapon seemed to be a miniaturised concrete mixer.

The fourth bore a simple labcoat and a spike of grey hair stereotypical of academic types. It's triple-barrelled gadget resembled apparatus more than any conventional weapon.

The plants grimaced as they realised the identities of this ragtag bunch of undead. The zombies likewise held an expression of reminiscence, after which the two factions stood staring each other down, daring their opponents to initiate the fight. Lathyrus cast the first metaphorical stone, launching a pea which clocked the soldier on the head, causing them to stagger backward from the force and in surprise. In response, the allstar kicked an imp amongst the plants' ranks, compelling them to scatter.

The scientist teleported to Helianthus, who retreated after suffering a few chemical burns from the goo blaster. Jumping onto one of the cores, Helianthus rooted again, nodding to Lathyrus, who did likewise. Coordinating their attacks, Lathyrus and Helianthus laid down a profusion of heavy fire, seriously inuring the zombies. Dionaea used the distraction to burrow underneath, attempting to feast upon the engineer, though his exertions were cut short as the allstar crashed into him, launching him back to his squad. Landing on his vines, Dionaea took a moment to regain focus as Carnegiea dropped a tallnut barricade to cover them.

At once, the soldier fired a rocket at Lathyrus as the engineer threw a sonic grenade at Helianthus. Lathyrus uprooted to avoid the incoming vanquish as Helianthus was bombarded by the loud noise, forcibly ending her lockdown. The scientist threw down a healing station and Helianthus deployed a healing flower. Round one ending in a stalemate, the plants and zombies reordered themselves to face their opposite numbers. The tension was far shorter-lived this time as the combatants exploded into action. It was time to do or die.

* * *

Just two more to go now. The climactic battle is next, but until then, here's a cliffhanger.

Dorylus signing off.


End file.
